Civil War soldier, Alonzo Cushing, finally earns honor

New York Times

Published 6:35 pm, Thursday, August 28, 2014

Washington --

He went off to fight, telling a cousin that "I may never return" but "I will gain a name in this war."

First Lt. Alonzo H. Cushing proved right on both counts. He did not return, and now, after an epic delay notable even in a town famed for taking its time, his name will at long last be honored at the White House.

More than 150 years after standing his ground against Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg, Cushing will be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President Obama - a result both of his heroism in those dark days and of the persistence of a 94-year-old Wisconsin woman who lobbied on his behalf for more than a quarter-century.

Cushing was at the center of the most pivotal day of the most pivotal battle that arguably turned the tide of the Civil War. An artillery battery commander at age 22, he refused to retreat in the face of the Confederate infantry assault ordered by Gen. Robert E. Lee on Cemetery Ridge and kept firing his cannon even after being wounded.

After all the blood spilled during the charge - named for Confederate Maj. Gen. George Pickett - the Union had repelled the Southern rebels, who never fully recovered for the remainder of the war.

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"This falls into that category of it's never too late to do the right thing," said Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., who co-sponsored legislation that allowed Cushing to receive the medal so long after the war. "Many military historians for years scratched their heads wondering how he was overlooked for the Medal of Honor at the time. Coming around full circle 150 years after the fact is the right thing to do."

Nearly half of the previous 3,490 recipients of the Medal of Honor fought in the Civil War, but none waited as long as Cushing.

The approval of the medal by the first black president adds a certain historical coda to the lengthy saga, underscoring how much has changed in this country since Cushing gave his life in a war that ended slavery in the United States.

The long delay owes to a variety of factors that speak to how Washington works, or does not. At the time of his death, the medal was not awarded posthumously, so Cushing was ineligible. Once the rules changed and his cause was taken up, it lingered for years in the bureaucratic and legislative trenches of the capital, where some worried that honoring him would open the floodgates to other requests.

Kind said some Southern colleagues were also less than enthusiastic.

"There was some resistance to awarding a Union soldier the congressional medal at Gettysburg even 150 years after the fact," Kind said. "They didn't want us refighting the Civil War all over again. It's still sensitive. But we were finally able to bridge that gulf and get it done."

Cushing's case was pressed most passionately by Margaret Zerwekh, the granddaughter of a Union veteran whose house sits on land once owned by Cushing's father in Delafield, Wis. Zerwekh became intrigued by the story of Cushing, who died childless.

Reached by telephone at her home in Wisconsin on Wednesday, Zerwekh gave a concise answer to why she cared so much about Cushing.